Association

Something I've found a lot is that people don't like their interests to be associated with certain words, because they feel it demeans it. I suppose the biggest one is 'cartoon'. The word cartoon has a lot of associations with children's programming, or something silly. While I would use the term animation to refer to anything animated, I'm generally okay to call any western animation a cartoon, becuase generally it is. Depending on the content, I am less willing to refer to anime as cartoons, because when you have shows like Fullmetal Alchemist the word just dosen't sit right. It's a cultural thing; in the west, animated works are not always for children, but a lot of the time they are childish. In Japan, animated works can be silly and childish, but also deep, complex, emotional and violent (then there's hentai, but I'm not getting into that). Some people would refuse to refer to any anime as a cartoon because there is a huge cultural difference, some just don't want to admit they are watching a kids' show. I watch disney films, so I have no problem with stuff meant for children.